One day after the 37-year-old Meadowlands Racetrack grandstand was announced as the site of the National Football League’s official tailgate party for the Feb. 2, 2014 Meadowlands Super Bowl, the last beam of steel was placed for the new grandstand on Friday.

The ceremony took place in frigid temperatures, but track operator Jeff Gural was clearly delighted with the progress on the new 2,200-seat facility being built at the site of the current backstretch. Construction on the new facility – which will be much smaller than the old building to reflect a decline in harness racing attendance – is scheduled to be completed by this fall, with Opening Night set for Nov. 23.

[Note: the actual number of grandstand seats is only dropping from 2,955 to 2,900. But of course most people don't sit in a traditional seat all night, like at the opera, which is how the old track could draw 18,000 per night at its peak. So here's the square footage change: from 500,000 square feet currently to 180,000 square feet.]

“It will be a very different atmosphere, because the building will be the right size,” Gural said. “[The old grandstand] is just too big.”

Legendary driver John Campbell, who attended the ceremony, reluctantly agreed:

“It’s sad to me in a way that we used to fill up that building,” Campbell said as he pointed to the old grandstand, “and now we can’t get enough people in there to even make it look busy except on Hambletonian Day. The old building needed a lot of work to be technologically better and up to date. If we put 4,000 or 5,000 people in the new place, it will feel like something’s happening – and that’s what people want. You put 5,000 in the other building, and it feels like nobody’s there.”

Trainer Tony Alagna of Freehold also embraced the idea of a new facility. “Anytime you build something new like this, it’s like a fresh coat of paint – it gives everybody a little rejuvenation, or excitement about it. Hope springs eternal.”

Linda Toscano, another trainer who attended the event, said she was “thrilled” about the new era ahead. “New facility, new management – now let’s get everybody back into the grandstand,” Toscano said.

Gural speaks: - On a potential role for sports betting at the new grandstand: “If it’s ever legalized, we’d certainly have it. I think we’d probably do more business than anyone. I personally think it will come down to the Supreme Court, now that the feds [Dept. of Justice] has intervened. I understand if the government says something is illegal – like marijuana – in the U.S. But I don’t see why the government should be able to say something is illegal in these 46 states, but not in four.

- on whether the new sports bar area could be a regional leader ahead of traditional bar/restaurants in terms of attracting sports fans of all types, given the size and number of screens: “We brought in a guy who runs a half-dozen sports bars in Manhattan and Hoboken, and he himself doesn’t know. We’re still a place where you’ve got to drive, compared to Hoboken or the [Greenwich] Village. But we’re gonna try.”

- On whether he expects the Super Bowl tailgate party to be the last event at the old grandstand before demolition: “I would think so. I don’t know what else [the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority can do with the building. It costs too much to maintain, and I’m sure the sports teams [Giants and Jets] would love to see it torn down. It’s a perfect place for added parking for the stadium. It will go out in a blaze of glory, for sure,” Gural added of the Super Bowl sendoff. P.S. Sports authority officials indeed expect that to end the old grandstand era.

I asked the three track veterans about the new location – not the track, of course, but the grandstand location and resulting changes in racing dynamics. Alagna: “It will be like shipping to a racetrack that we haven’t been to previously. The only thing will be our old misconception about it being a different setup. It will take a little getting used to.” Campbell: “I don’t see it as being a big factor at all, even if it’s a little strange for people like me who has been going the other way for all these years. I think after three or four nights, we won’t think anything of it.” Toscano: “It will seem a little bit different to start, but like anything, we’ll get used to it.”

How about the wind? Alagna: “We’ll have a night where the wind is hitting them on the backstretch, or winds hitting them in the stretch. So it’s still the same variant, just on a different side. I don’t think it will affect the speeds.” Campbell: “We’ve raced where the winds have gone the other way at times, and lots of nights there is no wind. I don’t see it being a big factor at all.” Toscano: “The wind is a little bit of a different factor, but the drivers will figure it out.”

Sun issues? Alagna: “I don’t think we’ll be affected at all.” Campbell: “You’ll have sun in your eyes going into the first turn, whereas before it was going into the last turn. It’s something we have dealt with, and that’s only two and a half months in the summer.”

How about the horses? Alagna: “The horses will adapt to it better than we will. They’re such creatures of habit, they’ll get back into it very easily.” Toscano: “The horses won’t care.”

The event drew some political bigwigs in spite of the frigid temperatures, led by state Senate President Stephen Sweeney, up from Gloucester County. Sweeney – an ironworker by trade – beamed as he nodded to his brethren working the grandstand:

Finally, there’s state Senator Paul Sarlo, D-Wood-Ridge, who signed the ceremonial steel beam with, “I’ll be back for the casino steel erection” – then turned to me and said, “Stick THAT in your blog!”